Standard Procedure
By gbrading 1 Comments
Playing the Medic on Team Fortress 2 is a singular experience. One of the main background support roles along with the Engineer, the Medic is tasked with healing teammates and deploying Ubercharges to make characters invincible for a short period. The Medic isn't particularly good at killing the enemy himself: his syringe gun isn't particularly powerful except at close range, and it's rather difficult to get near enough to an enemy to hack at him with the bone saw. However, an upshot of the Medic is that for whatever player you are healing at the time, if they kill an enemy, then you earn a kill-assist and are rewarded with points. Deploying an Ubercharge also garners a reward. This is why if you plunge into any game of TF2 half way through, you will often find at least one Medic near the top of the leaderboard.
The downside of the Medic is that often, nearly everyone is competing for your attention. The constant shouts of "Medic!" from every direction or people on voice-chat urging you to heal them even when they are at full health can become irritating. And furthermore, hardly ever does the humble Medic get any credit for helping to capture points, or teaming up with the Heavy and Ubercharging him all the way to glory. Another point is that of all the classes, the Medic is probably the most repetitive, since your main objective is just to heal people by holding down the left mouse. As you may have gathered from the opening paragraphs, I have been playing quite a bit of TF2 recently. If I had to pick my least favourite class, they would either be the Spy or the Sniper. The problem with the Sniper is that you can never find a good shooting spot (where you might be safe for a minute or two) and if you do, I personally can never seem to shoot with the rifle accurately. I also dislike the way the camera zooms out after each shot, instead of when the clip is empty. The Spy has no particular problem; I'm just not very good at playing it.
Favourite classes? I really don't think I have one, although I like the Scout's speed, the Demoman's explosives, and the Engineer's building abilities. Really, it is quite amazing that Valve managed to balance the game so well, because rarely does a game go by where one of the class is totally neglected. In terms of multiplayer experience, it might be lacking in the grandeur of something like Call of Duty or Gears of War, but it more than makes up for it in hilarity and singular comic book style. It has the feel of the indispensible guide I keep with me at all times, "How to be a Villain" by Neil Zawacki (Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans and More!). And with the big updates that are continuing to be released, such as a plethora of achievements and unlockable equipment, it looks like the appeal of the game is not going to waver for quite a time to come. Also, I just love all of the Machinima advertisements from "Meet the..." series. The latest "Sandvich" version is just classic.
Giant Bomb Addendum: Some Famous Last Words
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..."
General John Sedgewick, Union Commander killed by a bullet in the eye during the Battle of Spotslyvania on 9th May 1864.
"No."
Alexander Graham Bell, died 1922. When asked by his wife "Don't leave me!", Bell simply replied "No", and promptly died.